You can knock on every other persons door and find crack. That seems to be happening with heroin as well

Well, if you just let every door have it, then the market collapses, putting the jobs of 1000's of cops on the lines. That's why it's just every other door, market flood protection to secure jobs for the boys. Solid politics, that.

I could swear I've heard the argument that legalizing pot would put the cartels out of business a time or 6 thousand. Can anyone really honestly say that groups that are involved with things like kidnapping, extortion and murder are refusing to mend their ways?

onyxruby:I could swear I've heard the argument that legalizing pot would put the cartels out of business a time or 6 thousand. Can anyone really honestly say that groups that are involved with things like kidnapping, extortion and murder are refusing to mend their ways?

That's a good, solid effort. I give it 8/10. It has a veneer of logic appealing enough that it could plausibly be genuine, it opposes the majority view (especially among this shady population), and it literally invites a response.

onyxruby:I could swear I've heard the argument that legalizing pot would put the cartels out of business a time or 6 thousand.

Funny, I didn't hear that anywhere. I heard that it might put them out of the pot business, which is a major source of income for them. I also heard people say that if we legalize all drugs it would put them out of the drug business. But not too many people think that the drug gangs (they aren't cartels) will simply dry up and fade away simply because pot is legal.

onyxruby:I could swear I've heard the argument that legalizing pot would put the cartels out of business a time or 6 thousand. Can anyone really honestly say that groups that are involved with things like kidnapping, extortion and murder are refusing to mend their ways?

I'm thinking these people are more along the Dick Jones/OCP school of thought:

"Good Business is where you find it."

I doubt they'll go out of business, but will rather just change their business interests. No more marijuana trade? Fine heroin, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, firearms trafficking, whatever else can pay the bills, the Narcos will take up.

The increase in heroin smuggling has nothing to do with pot legalization. Recently, a new form of oxy has hit the pharmacies, that has been reformulated to not get people high. Unlike past attempts, this new oxy seems to actually work as promised. So now all the pill heads can't get their fix from abusing prescriptions, but they are still junkies.

Heroin has always been a cheap alternative to pills. It's where addicts went, when their lives finally fell apart, and they couldn't afford to get oxy anymore. Now, it is their only choice, and the heroin market is exploding. Add to that, trends for producing cheaper versions of heroin, coming out of Russia, like Crocodile, and you have a huge new market.

Even if pot legalization was cutting into Cartel profits, which it may be doing on a small scale, that doesn't mean that the Cartel could make up for it by upping the production of some other drug. At the end of the day, they still need a demand for their products on the streets in America. If there wasn't a decrease for demand for illegal pot, then the Cartels would be upping sales for Heroin, while maintaining their current levels of pot production.

As for the Mexican Drug Cartels--I've already noticed that as Marijuana restrictions are eased in the United States, there are more and more taco trucks than ever before? The Mexicans are already competing with Funyuns...And WINNING.

I mean, here in Austin, at 2am, stoners line up for Tacos and the 7/11's are empty.

The vast, vast, vast majority of people who smoke now-legal weed would never touch heroin. They can increase production all they want, they aren't convincing their former marijuana customers to take heroin.

Marcus Aurelius:There is a simple solution. Legalize heroin, and these smugglers will be completely out of luck. As an added bonus, we could fire almost everyone over at the DEA.

Yeah. Because heroin isn't at all addictive. I'm sure the government would give it away, free of charge. Nobody who uses it legally would get addicted and then struggle to buy more, resorting to any means necessary to feed the addiction.

"It's not worth it anymore," said Rodrigo Silla, 50, a lifelong cannabis farmer who said he couldn't remember the last time his family and others in their tiny hamlet gave up growing mota. "I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization."

IS ANYBODY LISTENING? Defund the DEA and all drug cops, spend the money on treatment. Win - Win.

LavenderWolf:The vast, vast, vast majority of people who smoke now-legal weed would never touch heroin. They can increase production all they want, they aren't convincing their former marijuana customers to take heroin.

Hah, I've been told that pot is the ultimate gateway drug, and after just one toke you become so desperate for a stronger high that in a week you are shooting random substances into your veins and licking strange frogs.

Dinki:So let me guess- This is one more reason why we need to keep pot illegal, so the price of heroin doesn't fall?

Look at Commy McCommunist..ski over here, wanting to regulate how american investors choose to allocate their funds and cripple the FREE market from applying capitalist know-how and resources so they can turn a profit. I suppose you want all those jobs to go to FOREIGN countries and let the trade deficit keep getting worse?

Dinki:LavenderWolf: The vast, vast, vast majority of people who smoke now-legal weed would never touch heroin. They can increase production all they want, they aren't convincing their former marijuana customers to take heroin.

Hah, I've been told that pot is the ultimate gateway drug, and after just one toke you become so desperate for a stronger high that in a week you are shooting random substances into your veins and licking strange frogs.

Dinki:onyxruby: I could swear I've heard the argument that legalizing pot would put the cartels out of business a time or 6 thousand.

Funny, I didn't hear that anywhere. I heard that it might put them out of the pot business, which is a major source of income for them. I also heard people say that if we legalize all drugs it would put them out of the drug business. But not too many people think that the drug gangs (they aren't cartels) will simply dry up and fade away simply because pot is legal.

Funny enough, they ARE losing business, and watching the cartel folks scramble into other markets (read: Heroin) kinda seems to support he old hippie ideal that legalization will take the criminals out of the business. Honestly, I don't think that many people are as interested in heroin as in weed, so Colorado is very likely scaring the shiat out of them because their customer base doesn't need them anymore.

Becoming a junkie is not a health problem.Sorry, but yes it is. Addicition is very much a health problem, and the factors that lead people down that path are public health issues.

It's a 100% preventable disease. That's not a public health issue, that's a too farking bad you shiatbird problem. But as long as they don't commit a crime to fund their habit I'm ok with it. It's not my life, liberty or property they're hurting. Plus when they die it'll suck so they have that going for them.

I'm not terribly concerned about cartels switching to heroin because I honestly don't see the customer base expanding that much. I could be wrong. What worries me about them dabbling into new business models is human trafficking. It's very real and a horrifying problem.

chitlenz:Funny enough, they ARE losing business, and watching the cartel folks scramble into other markets (read: Heroin) kinda seems to support he old hippie ideal that legalization will take the criminals out of the business. Honestly, I don't think that many people are as interested in heroin as in weed, so Colorado is very likely scaring the shiat out of them because their customer base doesn't need them anymore.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree- the drug gangs must be shiating bricks over pot legalization. Pot is much easier to produce than heroin, the penalties for possession and sale are less, and the market is exponentially larger. They will never be able to make up the loss in revenue from pot sales by increasing sales of heroin.

We are going to see more bullshiat articles like this as national legalization looms. Nobody really believes the old lies anymore, so the prohibitionists have resorted to throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

It's a lamer form of those ads where they blame pot smokers for supplying the cartels with operating funds. Those don't convince anyone of anything.